Two comments don’t exactly constitute public perception.
Incidentally, some women also touch themselves when they use the restroom (incidence rate is who the fuck knows) for approximately the same reasons, and, uh, you’ve never heard complaints about speculums?
Ford, Liwag-McLamb, and Foley, 1998 (among other studies, such as “What is a typical rape? Effects of victim and participant gender in female and male rape perception” by Irina Anderson in the British Journal of Social Psychology) suggest that people are less likely to label a given incident rape if the victim is a male, more likely to regard a male victim as complicit in or partially responsible for the rape, and more likely to regard male victims of rape negatively (the term used in the literature is generally “homophobic response”).
Incidentally, as for the legal status of the two girls—it wouldn’t be rape. It wouldn’t even be sexual assault. It’s generally classified as sexual battery, and is a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions.
Two comments don’t exactly constitute public perception.
Incidentally, some women also touch themselves when they use the restroom (incidence rate is who the fuck knows) for approximately the same reasons, and, uh, you’ve never heard complaints about speculums?
Ford, Liwag-McLamb, and Foley, 1998 (among other studies, such as “What is a typical rape? Effects of victim and participant gender in female and male rape perception” by Irina Anderson in the British Journal of Social Psychology) suggest that people are less likely to label a given incident rape if the victim is a male, more likely to regard a male victim as complicit in or partially responsible for the rape, and more likely to regard male victims of rape negatively (the term used in the literature is generally “homophobic response”).
Incidentally, as for the legal status of the two girls—it wouldn’t be rape. It wouldn’t even be sexual assault. It’s generally classified as sexual battery, and is a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions.